Rendell addresses ESU protesters on sex scandal cover-up

Friday

Feb 27, 2009 at 12:01 AM

EAST STROUDSBURG — Gov. Ed Rendell pushed for greater disclosure from East Stroudsburg University officials in the wake of a lawsuit alleging a former top administrator sexually harassed students and that other high-ranking officials covered it up.

DAN BERRETT

EAST STROUDSBURG — Gov. Ed Rendell pushed for greater disclosure from East Stroudsburg University officials in the wake of a lawsuit alleging a former top administrator sexually harassed students and that other high-ranking officials covered it up.

"These are serious charges," Rendell told the students who gathered on the ground floor of the Science and Technology Center on Thursday. "You have the right to know why this was allowed to go on."

Rendell's comments, delivered to 200 restive ESU students, offered them their first and, thus far, only face-to-face comments by a public official since the explosive complaint was filed Feb. 13.

Rendell came to the campus to tout his proposal to defray the cost of tuition by legalizing video poker in bars and taverns and taxing the proceeds.

But a swell of students gathered earlier in the afternoon on the campus quad to protest the administration's relative silence on the suit and the controversy, and they came to the Science and Technology Center to demand answers.

Rendell and ESU moved the guests for the invited event on tuition relief into the next room, and addressed the scandal first. He also defended his decision to eliminate funding for the Scranton State School for the Deaf.

One current and five former ESU students filed a lawsuit alleging that Isaac Sanders, the former vice president of advancement and executive director of the private ESU Foundation provided gifts, scholarships and jobs in exchange for unwanted attempts at sexual intimacy.

The suit also names other top campus officials, including President Robert Dillman, for allegedly quashing internal investigations into Sanders' purported misconduct.

Joe Caviston, a senior and one of two students who asked Rendell questions, told the governor that he and other students wanted Dillman to address the allegations beyond an e-mail he sent out to students, staff and faculty Tuesday. Dillman's statement said that legal procedures meant that he could not comment now, but that he promised to do so when appropriate.

"Why should we feel safe going to anyone on campus if the president won't talk to us?" Caviston asked.

"I'll talk to him," Rendell said. "I'll urge (Dillman) to engage."

Rendell, a former Philadelphia prosecutor, also described as "criminal" the allegations made against Sanders in the lawsuit. "If it's true," Rendell said, "it's a criminal act."

He also reminded the crowd not to draw conclusions about guilt or innocence of Sanders, Dillman or anyone else before there has been formal due process.

"You don't want justice to be served by people who are calling for your head," he said.

Rendell promised to send a delegation from the board of governors of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), which oversees ESU, to come to the campus for a confidential session. "You're entitled to get your ideas across," he said. "The (PASSHE) board are the only people who can take action a macro level."

Rendell also said that a PASSHE-initiated investigation would wrap up in the next two to three days. It was launched last summer after two internal ESU probes found no grounds for action against Sanders.